The Bucket List
by Melon Dollar Baby
Summary: Edgeworth finds a letter from his deceased mother which contains a bucket list. He decides he must complete it within the month and he'll need some unwitting friends to do


Phoenix Wright was pretty sure he'd never sweat so much in his entire life. His breathing was ragged, palms moist and he felt like his heart was going to blow up. In his career as a defence attorney, he had faced cold-hearted killers, mindless murders and angry old people and yet, no one had shook him to his core like this. However, Phoenix Wright was not in any courtroom or prison. He was somewhere far more intimidating.

"Wright. You have gotten my floor wet," Edgeworth frowned, "Tell me what you want and go."

Phoenix was stood in chief prosecutor Miles Edgeworth's office, sweating and stammering like a common damsel in distress. Edgeworth raised an eyebrow at his childhood friend.

"I was, er, wondering if I could...ah...borrow a book? Apollo has this embezzlement case going on, but none of us are really experts on it," he explained.

"Hmm, I can hardly say it's my area of expertise either. I imagine my father would have had a book on the subject. Please, give me a moment."

Phoenix watched as Edgeworth unlocked a glass cabinet amongst his bookshelf. He removed a blue hardback from his shelf. Edgeworth sighed as he held the weighty tome in his hands and handed it carefully to Phoenix.

"Thank you, Edgeworth. I promise I'll look after it. On Apollo's life."

"That doesn't inspire much hope. Just know that these books are my prized possessions. Whenever you or your underlings handle these, picture my dead father's face and me as a tiny orphaned child. If anything happens to this book, I'll have to contact Ms. Fey if I ever wish to communicate with you again. Understand?"

Phoenix laughed for a split second until he realised Edgeworth was not joining him. He nodded profusely before carefully sliding the book into his briefcase and disappearing out of the door. Edgeworth looked at the gap in his otherwise immaculate bookshelf and sighed. Hopefully, that threat would be enough to make sure Phoenix would bring his book back without it getting burned to ash or it getting used as a murder weapon.

"Did you get it?" Apollo exclaimed, turning on the couch as soon as he heard the door.

"Yeah, Edgeworth threatened to kill you if you damage it," Phoenix lied, "So you better take care of it."

Apollo cautiously took the book and darted to the desk with it. As he went, a piece of paper fell out and drifted carefully to the floor. Phoenix screeched and dove to the floor, as Apollo froze in horror.

"No! Mr Edgeworth is going to kill me," he lamented as Phoenix picked it up.

"Wait, this isn't a page. It's a letter," he mused as he examined the paper, "It's for Edgeworth and...it's from his mom."

Phoenix met Apollo's gaze as he looked up from the letter. Neither said anything for a few moments. The paper shook in his trembling hand.

"What happened to her? Mr Edgeworth's mom? Obviously his dad's gone, but...I've never heard about her."

"She...she died. He was really young so he never really knew her. I think he was five at the time," Phoenix sighed, "I don't know how he'd react to seeing this. What would you do? I don't want him to think I've read it. He'd be furious."

Apollo sighed, looking down at the floor.

"I don't know who my parents were, but...if there was a letter out there somewhere from my mom, I would really, really want to see it. Shouldn't Mr Edgeworth at least get the choice?"

And so, Phoenix was yet again stood in the chief prosecutor's office, sweating profusely and wishing he was anywhere else. Therefore, Mr Edgeworth now also had the pleasure of watching his childhood friend stammer his way through a sentence.

"Look, Wright, you may not understand this, as per your career. However, I am a very busy man and if I wanted to watch you have a breakdown, I'd simply go up against you in court. Now, what is about?"

Phoenix silently handed Edgeworth the letter. He took it and scanned the first line, face paling. Throwing it down onto his desk, he ran his hand through his hair and sank into his chair. None of the two men spoke. Phoenix slowly walked over to the couch and sat beside his friend. Edgeworth grunted and quickly stood up, adjusting his hair and jacket.

"Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Edgeworth snapped back, "It's just a letter. It's nothing of importance, after all."

"Are you going to read it?" Phoenix asked.

Edgeworth whirled round to face the uncomfortable attorney sat upon his pink couch.

"You can't help but poke your nose into people's business, can you? I bet you've already read it, haven't you?" he shouted.

"No, I haven't!" Phoenix protested, "I saw your name and your mom's name so I didn't read any further. Why would I read it?"

"Because you're nosy, that's why! You're always prying into what I'm doing or where I've been."

Phoenix leapt to his feet as Edgeworth crossed his arms in defiance. The two glared at each other.

"Name one time I have cared about what you've been doing or where you were."

"During that whole Lake Gourd debacle," he tutted with a shake of his head.

"I was your lawyer!" Phoenix exclaimed, "You'd been accused of murder and I was getting your alibi, that you were refusing to tell me, remember?"

"You always throw that in my face," replied Edgeworth. Phoenix jumped up out of his seat and left, slamming the door behind him in anger. He cycled all the way back to his apartment, cursing his stubborn friend under his breath the entire time. Apollo, Athena and Trucy all watched as he breezed past them all to get to his room.

"How did it go?" Apollo beamed, reading the atmosphere spectacularly wrong for someone who'd made a career out of it.

"Mr Wright! Your heart sounds very angry!" Athena exclaimed.

"Yeah 'cause Edgeworth is a giant jerk!" Phoenix shouted as he walked into his room, "I should have let him rot in that prison when I had the chance."

"Daddy doesn't mean that," Trucy whispered as he slammed the door behind him.

"Daddy did!" Came the muffled reply. The three all sat awkwardly, unsure if their mentor and/or father was going to appear again. Apollo quickly text the group chat, simply saying 'noodles?'.

Phoenix listened to the door shutting as his two employees and his daughter all abandoned him. Sighing, he pulled out a book and stared at the black squiggles. He couldn't concentrate. Edgeworth was right, he did want to know, _desperately_. He was nosey which was why he'd taken such offence at being called such a thing.

The phone rang.

"Hello?" Phoenix answered stiffly, glad he'd invested in that caller I.D feature last week.

"Wright."

"Edgeworth."

Out of stubbornness and awkwardness, the line was full of a loud silence.

"Well, for Pete's sake, Wright! Ask!"

"No, I won't ask! I don't care, remember, as I am not nosey!"

"Yes, you do! Look, perhaps it was somewhat wrong of me to assume you'd already read the letter. Even if I still might think you did. Nevertheless, I apologise."

This was quite possibly one of the worst apologies Phoenix had heard, seeing as it was less of an apology and rather a polite accusation. However, he could hear the emotion in Edgeworth's voice after what must have been a very difficult phone call to make. Edgeworth hated apologising.

Also, Phoenix really, really wanted to know what that letter said.

"Thank you, Edgeworth. That means a lot to me," he lied, "What did the letter say?"

"It was a whole load of nonsense! All about embracing my spirit and living free. I know from photos that she wore a lot of floral print but it would seem my father married a complete…" Edgeworth lowered his voice to a shamed whisper, "..._hippy_."

The fact that Edgeworth was half hippy was a magical notion all in itself, but that would have to wait right now.

"Oh...wow. Anything else?"

"There was…" Edgeworth sighed heavily, "A bucket list. A list of things I need to do before I'm 35, apparently. Under what consequence, I'm unsure."

"But you're already 35."

"I know. I'm afraid I'm rather conflicted, Wright. My mother has always been a paragon in my eyes and this letter has been something I've actually dreamed about since I was a boy. I feel as though it's my duty to carry this list out, out of respect for her."

Phoenix pauses as he took this in. He'd never met Edgeworth's mother as she died well before he transferred to his school. Whenever Edgeworth would speak of her, the admiration in his voice was the same as when he spoke of his father. He remembered the time he'd caught Edgeworth writing a letter to Father Christmas, asking for him to give his mother the finest present he could imagine; a set of law encyclopaedias. Knowing her penchant for 'free love', it was probably not a gift she'd have wanted.

"So what's the problem?"

"This list is ridiculous! Listen here, 'go to a music festival'. 'Go on a ghost hunt'. 'Have a sleepover with your best friends'. It's all infantile rubbish!"

"I mean, to me, it sounds like she wants you to have fun. You should give it a chance," Phoenix urged, for the selfish reason of wanting to see Edgeworth get possessed on a ghost hunt, "You remember fun, don't you?"

"Wright, you are annoying me."

Phoenix sighed. Edgeworth has always been described as an 'old soul' by teachers throughout school. His idea of fun had always been quite different to the other kids. Sudoku, puzzles, cleaning...that was Edgeworth's idea of fun.

"Come on, Edgeworth! Try something new! You don't want this to be another Banshee Falls moment, do you?"

He couldn't help but smile at the memory. It was a hot summer day and the two of them, accompanied by their friend Larry of course, had gone to the falls to have fun. Throw grass at each other, sword fights with sticks and other kids stuff. Then, Larry had the great idea that they should jump from the cliff into the lake below. Phoenix and Larry did it immediately whilst Edgeworth sat in the grass alone, furious.

"Do not talk to me about Banshee Falls."

"Look, I'm gonna go. It's getting late and I don't know where my daughter has gone," Phoenix sighed, "But you should seriously think about this, Edgeworth. It would be good for you."

The phone went dead. On the other side of town, Edgeworth sat in his office, where he'd chosen to work through the night. He rested his head in his hands and sighed, for the last time that night. Standing up, he took one last look at the letter and threw it into his trash can.

"Utter poppycock," he muttered as he left.


End file.
